A general home appliance (e.g., a television receiver or a remote controller for controlling a television receiver) may be provided with a small display device or view screen for use in conjunction with the control of the appliance, for example, to confirm execution of a control function by updating a display status accordingly, and such a display device may be provided with a touch panel (also known as a touchscreen or touchscreen panel) as an input device enabling function selection, data input, and general control operations. Thus, touch panels enable the display device itself to be used for system control or data entry and may be provided to the home appliance in addition to or in lieu of conventional input devices such as a keypad. Touch panels are essentially display overlays enabling the display device to display and receive information via the same screen, and conventional touch panels include many types, which are generally classified according to the methodology of the input, e.g., resistive, capacitive, surface wave, infrared, strain gauge, optical imaging, and acoustic pulse recognition. Each of these types permits a stimuli that registers as a touch event.
Meanwhile, a home appliance may have design limitations for situating a touch panel display device on an outer panel, or there may be physical limitations on its size, as in the case of a relatively small home appliance such as a remote controller. Accordingly, a touch panel display device for use as a control panel of a home appliance is restricted in terms of available screen area, so that the display size of a graphics interface unit (GUI) or menu item (i.e., a displayed icon or key) should be minimized. In the event that multiple GUIs need to be simultaneously displayed, say, as part of a main menu array, an arrangement of several closely spaced GUIs, each of which is necessarily small, represents an inconvenience to users—particularly for users having overly large fingers, poor dexterity, weak eyesight, or other diminished capacity.
Furthermore, for a home appliance (e.g., a television receiver) digitally controlled according to a control function parameter (e.g., volume or channel number) that is variable over a wide range of values at increments demonstrating a comparatively high selectivity (or small step value), it is often desirable to change the value of the parameter from one setting to another by stepping through many values of the range. In such cases, the user is further burdened with the need to manipulate a function selection key, such as a step-up or step-down control key, by repetitively touching a specific key of a displayed menu numerous times to effect a desired change in value.